Blog by an Albany lawyer about law, life in Albany NY, etc. Plus news about county court.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Garage Party - A Fun Way to Reduce DWI

We had a garage party last night. With all the DWI cases I handle where people had a few drinks and then drove home, this idea came to me. Wouldn't it be nice if you could go somewhere, have a few drinks, and not worry about driving home?

There's more to this. First, one of the motivators was that we now have a refrigerator in our garage. We bought new appliances. While we got rid of the others, we kept the fridge. Inspired by that Heineken commercial (see below - might be the Dutch or German version), I bought a lot of beer to fill the fridge.

Well, it turns out I don't drink that much beer. So what do you do when you have a fridge in your garage full of beer? Aha! You have a garage party. Now this is not the same as a Harley Davidson garage party.

Basically, we invited the neighbors over (so no one will be driving home). And we had a lot of beer, along with some other drinks.

It really went well. People brought their kids and the kids played together. The new neighbors got to meet the old neighbors. In today's world where we're all chasing our kids from soccer games to Tae Kwon Do, we don't get to talk to our neighbors much. This gave us all a chance to catch up.

Having the party in the garage means your house doesn't get messed up. Since the weather was pretty nice, the party expanded onto the driveway and the kids played there and in the yard. And if it had rained, the garage would have provided shelter. We parked our cars in the street before the party started.

Our neighbors brought over some desserts and a couple other goodies too.

My ulterior motive to reduce the amount of alcohol in the house had mixed results. A lot of my beer was consumed, but a couple people brought more over. I put out two bottles of wine, but neighbors brought three more. And we never opened any of the wine.

Most important, everyone seemed to have a good time.

So do your part to reduce DWI in your neighborhood. Invite the neighbors over for a garage party.